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ing her marriage for a time to jazz musician Chris Barber, will perhaps have faded from ageing memories but not so local jazz enthusiasts who still hold the former blues singer in high esteem. A plaque commemorating the life of Ottilie Patterson was unveiled at the home of her birth No 26 Carnesure Terrace, Comber, Co Down on 23rd February 2012. I was amazed to discover recently that 1950s and 60s international singing sensation, jazz and blues singer, Ottilie Patterson was born and grew up in this house in Comber, only a few miles from our house! As a young boy our radio was constantly on and I remember hearing Ottilie Patterson singing. Like so many others I had not realized that she was a white girl who could sing jazz and blues like a black girl. Perhaps it was her name, given to her by her Latvian other that completely threw me off. No less a person than Louis Armstrong is quoted as saying; "That gal puts me in min' of Bessie Smith." Ottile Patterson was the female singing sensation of her day. She sang with all the big stars and travelled the world appearing in all the hot spots. (Humphrey Littleton, Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Muddy Waters, Kenny Ball, Lonnie Donegan, George Melly. ) The volume of recordings she produced over the years was phenomemal. ANNA OTTILIE PATTERSON 1932 - 2011 Anna Ottilie Patterson was born here in Comber, Northern Ireland, on 31 January 1932 died Ayr, Scotland, 20 June 2011. One of the greatest Jazz and Interprative singers that has ever been. She studied the piano from the age of ten and trained as a classical pianist. She studied art at the Belfast College of Technology and formed her own band Muskrat Ramblers. Sometime on or about 1954 she was a teaching at Ballymena Technical College. She joined the Barber Jazz band full-time on 1st January 1955, making her first public appearance at the Royal Festival Hall on 9th January 1955. Known internationally as Ottilie she produced a vast list of recordings on a considerable number of record ladels with some of the greatest British Jazz exponents such as:- Humphrey Littleton, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball and Chris Barber, to drop but a few names from her illustrious career. Here is a few of the tracks she recorded there are many others:- As Long As I'm Moving, Baby Please Don't Go, Backwater Blues, Beale St. Blues, Blueberry Hill, Careless Love, Don't Fish In My Sea, Heavenly Sunshine, Hello, Dolly!, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, I Love My Baby, I Shall Not Be Moved, I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate, Jailhouse Blues, Jealous Heart, Kay Cee Rider, Let Him Go Let Him Tarry, Lonesome Road, Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean, Make Me a Pallet On the Floor, Mean Mistreater, New St. Louis Blues, Poor Man's Blues, Salty Dog, Shipwreck Blues, Spring Song, Sweet Georgia Brown, 'Taint No Sin, Tell Me Where Is Fancy Bred, The Bitterness Of Death/ Spring Song, There'll Be A Hot Time In Old Town Tonight, Trombone Cholly, Trouble In Mind, Ugly Child, Weeping Willow Blues, When Things Go Wrong, Fame did not go to her head and she remained a very private and reserved lady. Ottilie retired during 1984, She lived in Ayr, Scotland for thirty years latterly moving to a private care home where she died at the age of 79. It was her own wish that she lived in quiet anonymity and her family did not make public her passing. Ottilie chose the Rozelle Holm Farm, Care Home, in Ayr knowing that her privacy and rights as an individual would be respected. She was laid to rest in the private family plot in Comber.